Black Star Canyon: The Mystery Novel (Black Star Canyon Mystery Novel Series Book 1)

by C. C. Wall

  “We’re gonna find her, Jonathan,” Reagan said. “Don’t you worry about that.”

  Jonathan smiled. “I’m so blessed to have such great friends in this town.”

  Reagan threw his drink all the way back and stood up, glad to be out of that tiny chair. “Jonathan, do you mind if I take a look in Elizabeth’s room?”

  “Francine will most likely have a small meltdown.” Jonathan thought for a moment. “I got it.” Jonathan walked into the kitchen and put his hand on Francine’s back. “Sweetheart, Sheriff Reagan hasn’t had a moment to eat at all today, do you think you could whip us up some dinner?”

  “Oh, of course!” Francine looked in the refrigerator. She spoke up to ask Reagan a question, “Anything in particular, Sheriff?”

  “Anything is fine. I don’t mean to put you out,” Reagan said, playing along with Jonathan’s plan. In all honesty though, Reagan wouldn’t have minded a nice, home cooked meal.

  “Don’t be silly,” Francine said, becoming engrossed in her housewife routine.

  Jonathan came out and whispered to Reagan, “You should have an hour before she comes out of there.”

  “It should just take a few minutes,” Reagan said “Have you guys been through her room at all?”

  “Haven’t even stepped in there other than this morning.” The thought of what happened earlier in the day made Jonathan fall into his seat, sobbing.

  Reagan gave Jonathan’s shoulder a nice firm pat before he moved upstairs, through the hallway and into the room he figured was Elizabeth’s. He turned on the light.

  Reagan moved through the room, looking at everything on the dresser and her small desk. He didn’t feel comfortable going through the drawers of her dresser unless he exhausted every other option. He checked her desk and found nothing out of the ordinary; that is, out of the ordinary for an eighteen year old girl. He checked her nightstand. Nothing that would point to where she was. The one thing that seemed to scream out to Reagan in Elizabeth’s room, was that she was lost inside, trying so hard to make the transition from being “daddy’s little princess” to becoming a young woman. Reagan would hate to think that Jonathan being so over-protective might be one of the factors in Elizabeth’s disappearance, but he couldn’t get that out his mind. In fact, the more Reagan thought about it, he hoped that’s what it was. He hoped with all of his heart, in that pink and white room, that Elizabeth just ran off to become her own person.

  The last thing for him to look into was her dresser drawers. He approached them slowly. He really didn’t want to go through drawers with her “unmentionables” in them even though he wasn’t sure if an eighteen year old girl would even have “unmentionables”. This wasn’t anything he wanted to be doing but knew he should be doing something. His fat fingers could barely fit through the handles of the petite dresser drawers and that was enough for him to decide that there probably wasn’t anything in there that would help them find her any sooner. He convinced himself that she probably just took off and would turn up when she ran out of money; not that he would ever tell Jonathan that.

  He could smell the food Francine was making in the kitchen and thought that he had spent enough time in a little girls room.

  34 - Out Of Our League

  Dr. Coleen Clive, walked into the station, unsure of where she should go. Luckily for her, Detective Chaney was up getting coffee.

  “Dr. Clive!” Chaney said, surprised. “I didn’t expect you till later.”

  “Well, there are some things that we need to discuss,” Dr. Clive said.

  “Yes,” Chaney said, “that’s great. Would you like some coffee?”

  “I would,” she said. “But more importantly, some privacy with you and your partner.”

  Chaney and Lukas sat down in the conference room while Dr. Clive got her notes together.

  “So what’s the verdict, Doc?” Lukas asked.

  She forced a smile out, obviously not amused by Lukas calling her Doc. “Well, as I suspected, our young lady was strangled. She did have intercourse before her death, but there is no evidence that it was forced. She has small contusions all over the back of her skull.”

  “Is that all?” Lukas asked.

  “No,” Dr. Clive said. “The rest of this gets strange to say the least.”

  “All right,” Chaney said, “we have had all sorts of strange today.”

  The doctor continued, “There was an enormous amount of dirt wedged deep under her finger nails, which tells me that it has been there for some time.”

  “How long?” Lukas asked.

  “Weeks, even months,” Dr. Clive said, as she wiped a smudge from her glasses. “It’s hard to say with complete certainty.” She took a long pause. “There is other evidence here gentlemen, that is troubling me greatly. I thought, originally, that her time of death was the night before last, about eleven pm, but, there is some new evidence that is leading me to believe that she has been dead for much, much longer.”

  “Can you give us an approximate time?” Lukas asked.

  “The time, is not what I am referring to, Detective. Its the date,” Dr. Clive said.

  “The date?” Chaney said, in disbelief.

  “I have never seen anything like this before,” she said, “Some of her seems to suggest that she just died, yet other parts of her appear to have been dead for weeks, or even longer.”

  “What does that mean?” Lukas asked.

  Dr. Clive shook her head. “I’m not sure. I don’t know what to make of it.”

  Chaney looked concerned. “We have to report this to the FBI.”

  “What?” Lukas said, as if Chaney had lost his mind.

  “We are way out of our league, gentlemen,” Dr. Clive said.

  “Thank you for coming in,” Chaney said and shook her hand. “Let me show you out.”

  “Before I forget,” Dr. Clive said, “I thought you would want to know, that Henry Goodman died of cardiac arrest.”

  “Thank you,” Lukas said.

  Chaney walked the doctor out of the room while Lukas stared off into nothing while added up all of the bizarre findings that the day brought him. A hand on his shoulder startled him.

  “I haven’t been able to get anyone at Henry’s house or the Handy Shop,” Sue said. “Are you okay, Lukas?”

  “Yeah,” he said, somewhat under his breath. “I’m fine.” Lukas bit his thumb nail while thoughts flew through his head. “I’m sorry for earlier, by the way.”

  Sue turned her head to him with a slightly confused look on her face. “About what?”

  “Earlier. Where we found the body. I snapped at you and I shouldn’t have,” Lukas said.

  “I already forgot about it,” Sue said with a smile.

  35 - Parking Lot Cam

  The surveillance room at the Black Star Canyon Sheriff’s Station was quite small. Even Sue, with her small frame, felt claustrophobic sitting in there. There was a monitor and a few VCR’s and stacks upon stacks of video tapes.

  Sue found the ones from the night before. She was worried that she might scream when she saw Bekka fall. That was something she did. When she watched any of those types of home video shows where people send in footage of them falling down or getting hurt, she would scream. She thought that Eric only liked those shows because he liked to watch her scream out and cover her mouth in shock. With that said, Sue was expecting the worse, and she was prepared.

  When she watched the tape that showed the front of the station though, she was surprised when she didn’t see Bekka fall down. Sue had a confused look on her face. She tried a different angle and still, Bekka made it down the stairs without fail. Sue sat there, thinking that maybe she was crazy, but, she did see the giant bruise on Bekka’s hip, backside and thigh. She thought, maybe it happened earlier when she got there but didn’t want to say anything until the pain had become too severe.

  Sue rewound the tapes and watched from when Bekka got there. Nothing. There wasn’t anything from when Bekka had arrived at the station.
She was perplexed and she started fast-forwarding the footage while she fumbled through her pockets for her phone.

  That’s when she noticed it. In the bottom right corner of the screen, she saw hands appear and crawl across the sidewalk. It was Bekka; her arms were pulling her body into the frame. Sue pushed play and watched at normal speed. Sue had been watching the wrong part of the station. She quickly rummaged around, looking for the tapes from the parking lot camera. She switched the tapes and rewound it until she finally saw what really happened. She watched intently.

  Sue screamed out and quickly covered her mouth with her hand when she saw Dakota’s truck fishtail into Bekka, slamming her onto the wet ground. Sue watched for minutes on end in fast forward while Bekka was motionless in the gutter, crying out for help. Tears, quickly and steadily, came pouring from Sue’s eyes. She had to stop the tape.

  Sue couldn’t, for the life of her, understand why Bekka would make up a story about slipping down the steps out front. Then, remembered that she herself, had been in an abusive relationship and knew what it was like to cover for the person you love. Sue needed to find Bekka, fast.

  36 - Dropping Eves

  Three knocks on the door, was all Dakota did. There was a part of him that wanted to bang on the door like a psychopath and to just kick the door in. There was another part of him that wanted to barely make a noise in the hope that no one would hear, so no one would answer. Dakota’s heart hurt greatly for leaving his beloved Bekka there in the rain that night. He wanted to make it up to her somehow, but at the same time he was still mad that she would do something like that in the first place. Or, at least, had done that without talking to him about it first.

  The door opened. It was Bekka’s little sister, Jen. She never really liked Dakota. She thought that he was bad for her sister. She thought that Bekka could do better. “What do you want?” Jen said.

  “Hi, Jen,” Dakota said. “Is your sister here?”

  Jen didn’t answer. Jen didn’t move. Her face was stone.

  Dakota knew he had to convince Jen to let him in. “I just wanted to tell Bekka that I’m sorry.”

  Jen stood there looking at him as if she were able to search his mind and read his most inner thoughts. Eventually, she budged. “Yeah, she’s in her room. She’s on the phone. Tell her to get off, I need to call Eric.”

  Dakota breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” Dakota said as he walked through the door. Jen just walked away from him into the kitchen. He walked into the dark living room. On the far side of the room he saw their parents frozen in front of the television, with the green glow from the screen lighting up their joyful, yet unmoving, faces, as they were fixated on whatever it was they were watching.

  “Hello,” Dakota said with an awkward wave.

  “Don’t bother them,” Jen said. “They won’t hear you anyway.”

  Dakota had a confused look on his face.

  “Last room, straight down the hall,” Jen said to get him out of the living room.

  Dakota turned down the dark hallway and saw the light coming through the bottom door at the end of the hall. It was open about an inch but that seemed to be the only light in the entire house. He could hear Bekka talking but it sounded like mumbles until he got to the door. He looked in and could she her sitting on her bed, with her back turned to the door.

  “Yeah, I know… Fuck Dakota… He can’t treat me like that… I miss you too, baby…”

  Dakota’s heart shattered in his chest. He was afraid that the sound of if would startle Bekka before he could find out who was on the other end of that phone call.

  Bekka continued, “Everyone is going to see Confession Conspiracy play tomorrow night at Cook’s and Dakota will be setting up the stage before the show. We can meet tomorrow around five while he’s doing that… Cool. Where should I meet you?… All right, but you better have me at Cook’s before the show starts… But, I need to see you tonight, too. I miss you… I know you would never do that, I said, I was sorry… I love you too, baby. Bye.” Bekka hung up the phone and fell back on her bed with an amazingly large grin.

  Dakota was shaking. Tears were falling down his face. He turned and hurried down the hallway. Jen gave him a weird look. “I changed my mind. Don’t tell her I was here.”

  “Fine. Is she off the phone?” Jen said.

  Dakota ran out the front door.

  Jen rolled her eyes, “Dick.”

  37 - Hard Boiled

  Lukas and Chaney were running down the halls as fast as they could.

  “When did they find her?” Lukas asked.

  “They said about forty-five minutes ago,” Chaney answered.

  They turned a corner and nearly ran over a couple of nurses. Down at the end of the hall they saw some deputies and figured that had to be the room. They made it to the door and tried to catch their breath.

  “Is that her?” Lukas asked.

  “Yep. Elizabeth Kensington,” Chaney said.

  Elizabeth didn’t look her normal beautiful self. It wasn’t the tubes that were running out and all over her body, but it was the large, disgusting, yellowish boils that were all over her skin.

  “Jesus,” Lukas said under his breath.

  “They said she was almost dead when they got her here,” Chaney added in disbelief.

  They heard voices coming from down the hall, from a couple who, they guessed, would be grateful, but most likely hysterical.

  “Where is my baby?” Jonathan yelled, “Where is my Elizabeth?” He stopped at the door to look at his daughter, unsure if that was really her. Tears of joy rolled down his downcast face. Slowly, he made it to her bedside. He reached his hand out to hold hers but was taken aback by the boils that covered her hand. Knowing that people were watching, he wanted to hold it anyway for fear that the detectives and nurses might think of him as a horrible parent if he didn’t. As his fingers moved gently along the soft blisters across her once perfect skin, Jonathan held in sighs of fear and disgust. “My baby…” barely made it out of his mouth before the uncontrollable sobs started. “Who did this to you, baby? Tell Daddy.”

  The nurse at Elizabeth’s bedside noticed that Jonathan was squeezing the boil covered hand so tightly, that the boils looked as if they would burst between his fingers. Horrified, the nurse pulled her hand away from his, gently, and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Mayor, but your daughter is in a coma.”

  “No!” Jonathan cried and fell to his knees. Chaney ran over and grabbed him before he fell all the way down onto the ground.

  “Jonathan,” Chaney said, “where is Francine?”

  Barely able to say anything intelligible, Jonathan mumbled, “I gave her pills. She is asleep.”

  “Come with me, Jonathan,” Chaney said and pulled him up to his feet and helped him out into the hallway where Jonathan fell into an embrace with Chaney and screamed out while squeezing him so tightly that it was hard for him to breathe.

  Chaney was suddenly aware of a “clicking” sound behind him. When he turned he saw Jack Hart, taking photos.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Chaney yelled.

  Jack snapped a couple more pics then smiled. “The Mayors daughter goes missing and ends up in a coma, that’s news, gentlemen. I’m doing my job.” He took a couple more pictures. “Why don’t you do your job and find out what has been going on here the last few days.”

  “How dare you!” Chaney took a bad swing at him and missed him by a mile.

  Jack laughed at Chaney’s attempt. “Careful there, Detective. I’d watch it if I were you. I’m sure the Mayor would be more than a little pissed if a reporter cracks this case before his own law enforcement can; especially since his daughter is involved.”

  Jonathan lunged at him and managed to aim a kick that connected and hit Jack in leg. Jonathan screamed, “Get out of here! I’ll have you thrown in jail for the rest of your life! Get out of here!” Jonathan looked around and seeing that he had a lot of people’s attention, said, “I now have put a restrain
ing order out on Jack Hart! If he comes within 100 yards of this hospital, he is to be arrested on sight!”

  Jack’s face changed from glee to anger, repeatedly, as he recorded all of it on his camera, but was only able to limp away on his injured leg.

  Jonathan wasn’t happy with the speed that Jack was leaving at, so he ran down the hallway after him, and gave him one more warning. “I’m the bloody mayor! Don’t fuck with me!”

  Chaney grabbed Jonathan as Jack retreated.

  “Come on, Jonathan. He’s leaving. Don’t let that jerk upset you right now.”

  Everyone in the hospital saw what just happened; all but Lukas. Lukas stayed at Elizabeth’s bedside. He reached out and lightly brushed her hair off of her boil covered face. He looked through the boils and saw her beauty. He felt so horribly for her. He wished he could read her mind and find out what had happened to her and to see how all this was connected. He whispered, “Get better soon please.” He kissed his fingers and touched them to her hand before he turned to find out what all the shouting was about.

  38 - How To Make A Fire

  Eugene Wellington, the richest man in Black Star Canyon, lit an enormous cigar as he always did. He lit it in the hallway of his home instead of waiting until he made his way into his giant study, just to anger his wife, Morgan. Down the long hallway, he heard her yell at him.

  “Eugene!” Morgan cried, “I told you not to smoke those in the house!”

  Eugene gave out a light laugh and walked into his study. With both arms outstretched, he swung his double doors open and proceeded in. He noticed that the fire wasn’t as big as he normally would’ve liked it. This created a small frown on his face. He walked over to the fireplace, grabbed a poker and started stabbing the firewood. It still wasn’t as big as he would like. Suddenly the fire swelled to a ridiculous size and Eugene jumped back, dropping his cigar on the floor. The cigar hit his fancy suit in several places on the way down. He patted himself everywhere, just in case.